Russia's Victory Day takes on new importance for Putin this year : NPR

Tanks roll during a rehearsal on Thursday for the May 9 Victory Day military parade to take place at Palace Square in St. Petersburg, Russia.MOSCOW — Russians will celebrate Victory Day on Monday, an annual event to mark the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II that has taken on added intrigue and import this year because of Russia's fight in Ukraine.Under Russian President Vladimir Putin, the May 9 event has grown in scale and political prominence, with a Soviet-style military parade on Moscow's Red Square featuring a presidential address.This year's Victory Day comes amid widespread speculation, in both Russia and the West, that Putin is eager to declare at least a symbolic win in Ukraine. Russia will hold an annual military parade at Red Square on May 9.Russia's recent focus on those Ukrainian regions in the eastern Donbas area has slowed down as the U.S. and European allies boost the flow of weapons and other support for Ukraine.Russia's military has targeted those shipments as the Kremlin has escalated warnings and criticism, arguing that the military aid risks military confrontation between Russia and NATO powers.Underscoring this message, Russia on Wednesday carried out drills simulating a tactical nuclear strike in its western exclave of Kaliningrad, which borders the European Union.Putin has previously warned of "lightning fast" retaliation if the West intervenes in the Ukraine conflict directly — the latest in a pattern of amplified rhetoric that has fed theories that Putin is seeking to build public consensus for a broader war. Asked whether Putin would formally declare war on Ukraine on May 9, a Kremlin spokesman called the idea "nonsense." In recent days, Russia's armed forces have been rehearsing for a parade on Red Square in what has become a Putin-era revival of Soviet military traditions.Each May 9, Russians celebrate the end, in 1945, of what they call the Great Patriotic War, in which more than 20 million Soviet citizens died at home and abroad.